Millennials love their pets, and that love’s showing up on their holiday credit-card bills. The much-discussed generation of shoppers, known for their industry-disrupting tastes, will spend heavily on their pets this holiday season — more than double what consumers overall are expected to pony up, according to a report from PwC. Millennial households earning $70,000 […]
spending
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Donald Trump's claim that NATO will boost defense spending disputed
BRUSSELS (AP) — President Donald Trump closed out his chaotic two-day visit to NATO Thursday by declaring victory, claiming that member nations caved to his demands to significantly increase defense spending and reaffirming his commitment to the alliance. But there were no immediate specifics on what Trump said he had achieved, and French President Emmanuel […]
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Conservatives lash out at GOP spending binge
NEW YORK (AP) — The GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility no more. That’s according to some conservatives who are grappling with a Republican-backed spending binge that threatens to generate trillion-dollar deficits for years to come while staining a cherished pillar of the modern-day Republican Party. While President Donald Trump and his allies hope […]
Posted inBusiness, Maine
Profits and politics
Lip gloss. Hoodies. Hot dogs. It isn’t just TV stations and the post office benefiting from this election season’s heated campaigns in Maine. Fired up by the last presidential debate, Amanda Nelson, owner of a small Maine soap company behind quirky scents like Unicorn Farts and Bloody Lumberjack, created 40 tubes of Nasty Woman lip […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
GOP lawmakers want to tie spending plan to alternative minimum wage
AUGUSTA — Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee dug in their heels Wednesday against any new spending this year with one caveat: If Democrats support an alternate minimum wage proposal to the one that will appear on the November ballot, maybe the GOP will come to the negotiating table. Wednesday’s discussion came a day after […]
Posted inMaine
Think tank ‘oinks’ at government spending
AUGUSTA — A conservative think tank rolled out its latest report on state government largess, leveling criticism at both Republicans and Democrats in its “Maine Piglet Book” on Thursday. The Maine Heritage Policy Center’s report, released at a State House news conference, notes that spending in the office of Republican Gov. Paul LePage shot up […]
Posted inMaine
Republicans propose cutting Maine Legislature’s budget
AUGUSTA — Republicans on Thursday made several proposals that would cut spending within the Maine Legislature’s budget. “It’s time to put the Legislature’s budget on the treadmill,” state Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, said in a prepared statement. Thibodeau said the cuts being offered would save Maine taxpayers an estimated $430,000 over the Legislature’s two-year […]
Posted inMaine
Big independent PAC spending had small impact on Maine races
Learn About Tableau LEWISTON — Despite spending record amounts to attack candidates they opposed, political action committee spending on state legislative races in 2014 seemed to have little success in swaying voters, based on the outcomes of Tuesday’s election. According to state campaign finance records, independent expenditures, money spent by political action committees, out of […]
Posted inMaine
Maine budget committee eases forward with fix ideas for 2014 and 2015
AUGUSTA — State lawmakers on the budget-writing Appropriations Committee are gaining steady ground as they work to create a supplemental budget that will balance spending and revenues for 2014 and 2015. The Maine Constitution requires a balanced budget, and without a supplemental budget offering from Republican Gov. Paul LePage, the committee has been left largely […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
House passes $1.1 trillion bill to fund government
WASHINGTON (AP) — A $1.1 trillion spending bill for operating the government until just before next fall’s election steamed through the battle-weary House on Wednesday over tepid protests from tea party conservatives, driven by a bipartisan desire to restore painful cuts in domestic and defense programs and show disaffected voters that Congress can do its […]